Abolitionism Begins in America8.2

The Antislavery Movement• The antislavery movement began as two separate movements

• The first of these existed in the South among slaves with few sympathetic whites

• Slaves sought to free themselves not necessarily end slavery as a system

• The second existed in the North and upper South it consisted of both black and white abolitionists

Antislavery Movements• Far more whites were involved in the Northern antislavery

movement and they led the abolitionist organizations

• African Americans participated in these groups and also took direct action against slavery

• In the Upper South blacks could not openly join antislavery societies but they did cooperate informally with these groups

The Quakers• The Quakers began denouncing slavery as early as the 1730’s

and organized their first antislavery society in 1775

• These societies eventually attracted non-Quakers as well including Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush

• The most prominent black abolitionist at the time Prince Hall based arguments for abolition on the idea of natural rights

Northern Abolitionists• The early Northern abolitionist movements had many limiting

features• Blacks and whites worked in separate organizations• Promoted gradual abolition to protect slaveholders economic

interests• Did not push for equality only an end to slavery• Did not advocate for slavery in the South where most slaves lived

• It took the activism of the Benevolent Empire to establish a framework for a widespread biracial antislavery movement

Gabriel’s Conspiracy• A failed slave uprising in Virginia known as Gabriel’s

Conspiracy had two unintended consequences

1. It led to the decline of Antislavery societies in the Chesapeake due to public pressure

2. Fear of a race war like that of the Haitian Revolution

• Fear of a free black class that would compete with white workers and be a revolutionary threat to white rule

• This fear of black uprising led to a lost opportunity for the Chesapeake area pursuing abolition like the North

Denmark Vesey’s Revolt• An educated, revolutionary, free African American named

Denmark Vesey along with many whites plotted a slave uprising in S.Carolina

• Like Gabriel in VA. Vesey was betrayed by his associates and his uprising was thwarted

• White reaction to this plot led to the destruction of the local AME Church, slave assembly being outlawed, teaching blacks to read was outlawed, black sailors in port were jailed till they set sail again and in general a distrust of free blacks and white northerners.

Assignment• 1. Differentiate between the Antislavery movement in the

North and South.

• 2. What role did the Quakers play in this movement?

• 3. What limitations existed in the Northern Abolitionist movement?

• 4. Describe how Gabriel’s conspiracy negatively impacted the movement toward emancipation.

• 5. What was the white reaction to Denmark Vesey’s revolt?